Report of logging around Splinter Hill Bog

[shartmeyer]

I just received a comment via our YouTube Channel, reporting that a serious damage has been caused by recent logging and burning large parts of the Splinter Hill Bog area. Is anybody able to confirm that or to provide some more information on such an event ?

[bmtx]

I had a look at your Youtube account (great videos by the way), and wanted to recopy what I'm guessing is the original comment in question here.

"Just went to the preserve the last weekend. Some horrific event must have happened recently. Almost all the forest is logged and burned. Almost no alive plants are left. Almost all of them are dead--you see a field of dried dead plants. We managed to find just a few alive plants in the whole area."

I've omitted the rant about rednecks. While this comment is alarming, a couple of things spring to mind:

1) The carnivorous plants at Splinter Hill go deeply dormant over the winter. Every plant does look dried and dead if you don't know better. I attempted to visit Splinter Hill in March last year after seeing Texas S. alata starting to flower, and was very surprised to see how thoroughly brown and inactive the pitcher plants still were in Alabama. Additionally, I spent some time in the Florida panhandle about a week ago and came across several pitcher plant sites that were still dormant, with flower stalks just beginning to emerge from the rhizomes. Sites that were delayed in emerging from dormancy tended to have drier soils, appeared to have been burned in late winter/early Spring, and/or showed signs of late frost damage (most commonly at sites lacking overstory/shrubby growth, which may be frost-protective). While I didn't pass through Splinter Hill this time around, I wouldn't be surprised if the plants there were still asleep in early April based on those factors (speculative as they are).

2) Someone who isn't terribly familiar with longleaf pine communities might mistake normal savannah restoration activities such as controlled burning and stand thinning for something more nefarious going on.

That said, if anyone is local to Splinter Hill or has a contact in the Alabama chapter of the Nature Conservancy, it sounds like it would be worth checking up on.

[meizwang]

Apr 15, 2013 8:28:48 GMT shartmeyer said:

I just received a comment via our YouTube Channel, reporting that a serious damage has been caused by recent logging and burning large parts of the Splinter Hill Bog area. Is anybody able to confirm that or to provide some more information on such an event ?

Actually sounds like a godsend! If that entire forest was logged and burned, that clears the canopy for light, which allows the CP's to thrive.

Before humans were around, these long leaf pine forests would naturally burn to the ground all the time, and a new savanna would form. Sounds like the nature conservancy is doing a great job managing this site.

Typically, by this time of the year, there should be some spring pitchers formed in the wild, but I heard it snowed at Splinter Hill a month or two ago, which is definitely abnormally cold. The east and the south have experienced lower than normal temperatures in the past few months, so it's expected that the plants are a bit behind. IT does seem to be warming up now, and hopefully, everything will catch up soon.

[Not a Number]

Unfortunately the logging roads that get constructed in the areas are quite destructive to the area.

Mark Todd of the North American Sarracenia Conservancy can tell you of sites that the plants he came back to rescue were bulldozed over and covered with "temporary" road fill material.

I think Marcel and others may have actually visited some of these sites with Mark after the ICPS conference.

[marcel]

Yes, I visited Splinterhill after the ICPS, though Mark wasn't with us unfortunately. I was there with Brandy Midura, Adam Cross and DJ Frank and in my opinion the area was about due for a prescribed burn.

During the ICPS field trip with Mark we saw a population of plants whipped out due to a complete covering with wood chips of the track and the ditches on both sides. Also later after the ICPS tour we visited the Tate's Hell Leuco site and found it reduced to a building spot (though some plants survive deeper in the bog).

Our beloved ICPS treasurer Richard tried his contact with TNC for the Splinter hill area to get us an answer and got this auto-reply:

"I will be conducting prescribed burns from January 21st to May 5th depending on the weather. I may be slow to respond to e-mail during this time. Thanks......Keith"

That would fit with burning and cutting away pine trees at the site

[ktassin]

Hey folks, this is Keith Tassin, Director of Terrestrial Conservation with The Nature Conservancy in Alabama.

You can rest assured that Splinter Hill Bog is doing just fine and the plants have just begun to come out of dormancy in the last couple weeks. The logging that is mentioned in the first post is actually on property owned by the State of Alabama and is part of the restoration of this area. The protection of Splinter Hill Bog has been a partnership between TNC and Alabama's Forever Wild Program. The state has purchased about 1300 acres and TNC owns just over 1200 acres. One of the larger tracts of land that the State bought was formally owned by a timber company and was forested by loblolly pine plantations. Over the past year those plantations were removed and reforested in longleaf pine which is native to this landscape. While this may not look attractive at the moment it is a critical step to make this place better off in the long run.

And as far as fire goes......Without fire we don't have pitcher plant bogs. Fire is essential to maintaining open bog habitat. Most of the land owned by TNC receives prescribed fires every two years. We have burned just over 400 acres of the land we own since January and plan to burn an additional 200 acres by the end of May. So if you should visit the site (even in the early summer) and the ground is black from a recent burn you should know that the habitat is improving and all is well.

Best Regards,

Keith Tassin

[Michael]

Hi Keith - thank you very much for the update! I think it helped educate folks and settled some worries that folks had.

I, we, really appreciate the work you are doing!

Mike

[shartmeyer]

Thank you very much to all. Irmgard and I are very happy now for two reasons. Most important is certainly that the logging and prescribed fire at Splinter Hill Bog was done in a controlled fashion by the Nature Conservancy, confirmed now by Keith Tassin. That is certainly good for the plants, well done. And we are also happy, that we receive such a feedback via our YouTube channel. We explained the prescribed burning on our film (Brian Barnes does), however, that the reporting viewer was seriously concerned about the logged and burned field is actually understandable. Thanks to his report and the quick replies at this forum, which proofed nicely to be the right address for such observations, we know now that everything is alright. However, in the case of illegal logging the report could have been helpful to cause the responsible authorities to react immediately. Once again thanks to everybody who helped to clear this case so quickly. Now we are looking forward to find some photos of the prospering Sarracenia at Splinter Hill Bog during summer at this forum too.

[Brian Barnes]

Hey Gang,

I knew there was nothing to worry about, as this occurs year after year, compliments of Mr. Tassin and his splendid work at Splinter Hill. ;D Plus, the area is well-guarded as well. Now, the area will literally explode with new CP growth.

But then again, it is good to have "eyes on the ground" looking out for such events.

Happy Growing,

Brian